Leopard Virtual AMA with Lily Doyle, Founding Researcher at Portola (AI Companion Startup)
In this virtual AMA, we’re chatting with Lily Doyle, Founding Researcher at Portola—the team behind Tolan, one of the fastest-growing consumer AI apps (and a new Leopard employer!).
The Backstory: Lexi (Leopard's CEO) first met Quinten, Portola’s founder, back in 2011 when they were both students in NYC. He later started Even, a fintech company that helped over 2 million Americans avoid $500M+ in fees. Walmart acquired Even for $300M in 2022 (!)
Quinten and some of the team went on to build Portola, the company behind Tolan, an AI-powered alien companion app. Tolan's growth has been incredible: 100k monthly active users, #1 on the App Store, and $12M in annualized revenue, all within the first few months post-launch (!).
What is Tolan, Exactly?
The app features a friendly, cute alien character that interacts with users in a playful and engaging way. Each Tolan has its own planet where they live and interact with users.
Tolan utilizes advanced voice AI to create a natural and engaging conversational experience. It also uses advanced AI to understand users' needs and preferences, offering personalized conversations and support.
It can provide both emotional support and practical help with tasks, like planning activities or answering questions.
We invited Lily Doyle, Portola's Founding Researcher, to share her POV on what it's like working at Portola! We'll cover:
How she became Portola’s Founding Researcher—and what her role looks like day to day
Why she joined the team, and why Tolan is resonating so deeply with so many users, especially with Gen Z women
What she’s learned building Tolan so far, including:
Why whimsy design and animation works
How the team builds emotional safety, boundaries, and care into the product
What's fun, exciting, frustrating & challenging about building a Generative AI product
Why Leopard members should consider joining Portola, what the team is like, the culture, working norms etc
Her advice on assessing & joining AI startups
What to look for (and avoid) when evaluating startups
AI’s impact on society, the good and the bad
This should be a really fun one!
Check this page as well as the c-leopard-community-updates Slack channel for updates (Lexi likes to blab as she plans lol). If you need slack access, email gem@leopard.fyi and lexi@leopard.fyi.
About Leopard.FYI: Leopard.FYI supports women, non-binary folks, and allies in software engineering by fostering a community to share insights on company culture, compensation, and interview processes while partnering with organizations that align with our mission.
Software Engineers, join our Free Slack here (2.5k+ members): https://leopard.fyi/engineer-signup
Is your company hiring? Have the team grab time with Leopard's CEO Lexi to learn more about sharing open eng roles to the Leopard community: https://calendly.com/lexilewtan/30min